by Marinell Haegelin                                                           

The Armenian Genocide effectively wiped out a rich 2,000-year-old cultural heritage and approximately one million Armenians. In 1915, as World War 1 raged, the Ottoman Empire systematically committed heinous atrocities against innocent civilians. In the early 1980s the Zoryan Institute collected more than 3,000 hours from almost 800 aging (70–80-year-old) survivors for the remarkably outstanding Armenian Genocide Oral History Project. A smidgeon of one person’s ordeal is seen in AURORA’S SUNRISE, while a grandson’s passion to tell an unimaginable, unforgettable story about his grandfather’s fortitude and unflagging optimism’s shown in AMERIKATIS. The films reignite the historical certainty of not losing faith in moral courage and reparation.

Director-producer Inna Sahakyan’s seven-year AURORA’S SUNRISE project is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. By cobbling together first-person interviews, breathtakingly illustrated animation depicting the merciless savagery Aurora and Armenians experienced, and the surviving archival clips from the Hollywood-made 1919 AUCTION OF SOULS, Sahakyan powerfully recreates a significant historical tragedy. Men were executed, property confiscated, and Armenian women, children and old men were deported, forced on death marches to the Syrian desert and mountainous terrain. Turkish nationalists, Kurds, soldiers, and barbarians fought amongst themselves for human spoils of war.

Financially prosperous, the large close-knit Martikian family’s inventive and artistically prodigious. Only fourteen, Arshaluys (Aurora) Martikian’s performing original skits to entertain father is supplanted with witnessing his death, their home ransacked, and her immediate family’s deaths. During the death march, Arshaluys’ snatched for sex trade work; sold into a harem before stealing away; gets refuge from an old Turkish couple, etcetera, until landing on Ellis Island. In 1918, while working in NYC’s Garment District and trying to contact a brother, she crosses paths with journalist Henry L. Gates. He involves himself writing/ghostwriting Arshaluys’ first-hand account of Armenian ethnic cleansing; her name is “Americanized” to Aurora (“morning light”) Mardiganian.

The book, “Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian” fosters the screenplay for AUCTION OF SOULS featuring the teenager that Oscar Apfel directs. It’s a blockbuster, requiring exhaustive promotion; Aurora’s acquaintances include Mrs. Oliver Harriman, Henry Morgenthau, William Selig, and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt. Armenian fundraising for the Near East Relief soars with the increasing awareness. Henry’s wife Eleanor Brown Gates becomes Aurora’s U.S. legal guardian. Nevertheless, physically, financially, and psychologically Aurora’s trust is exploited. What makes the film’s acts of brutality palatable to watch is the remarkable animated illustrations, and Arshaluys’ (Aurora) archival material.

In AMERIKATIS it's boots on the ground, panic in the air during the Ottoman Empire’s 1915 roundup of Armenians. Swaddling her youngster, Charlie’s mother lovingly hums while prompting he keep his beautiful smile… be silent… shh. Flash-forward: 1947 and the now adult Charlie Bakhchinyan (Michael A. Goorjian) is at a crossroads when Stalin magnanimously offers repatriation to returning Armenian diaspora—approximately 100,000. He takes the bait. Fresh off the boat, Charlie’s quick actions save Sona Petrov’s (Nelli Uvarova) little boy; in gratitude he’s invited to dinner with husband Dmitri (Mikhail Trukhin). Charlie’s child-like wonder at new surroundings, and speaking English to Sona’s a godsend, except for Dmitri’s lack thereof.

Stalin aside, Charlie’s set-up, receives a preposterous sentence, and lands into a solitary prison storeroom awaiting transport to Siberia. Providentially, a quake shakes asunder much of the structure, putting Siberia on hold; the prisoners do laborious work. Curious, Charlie engineers a pyramid of castoffs until gazing out the window he vicariously enters another apartment and life across the way. The Armenian couple Ruzan (Narine Grigoryan) and Tigran (Hovik Keuchkerian) laughing, talking, eating, dancing, and arguing—when she locks a certain cupboard; they provide insight, companionship offsetting harsh realities Charlie experiences daily. Disparaged initially, time and his actions reduce him to “crazy Amerikatsi (American).” Tragi-comedic sequential scenarios unfold with seasons clocking the years passing. His geniality persists throughout degradations, and systematic beatings. When Ruzan leaves her hard-drinking husband; it’s personal for Charlie, he gets involved. Tigran, discovering the prisoner’s watching him, opens his window wider – even toasting across the no-man’s land. Life’s surprises never cease, just like Sona Petrov’s gratitude.

Writer-director-star Michael Goorjian’s script and performance are remarkable, balancing the cruelties with honed humor and unanticipated antics or solicitous mettle. The cast excel; production values are first-rate. AMERIKATIS won Filmfest Hamburg Publikumspreis (Audience Prize).